Welcome to the GameCritics.com Forum. We recognize that new members are vital to any thriving community. So we deeply appreciate your visit. Before posting, please read our Code of Conduct. If you enjoy discussing video games and other topics with mature and intelligent gamers, we hope you'll check out our other forums and become a member.

For me, it didn't really sell me on the game. I felt like the story was the same alien invasion tale I heard a thousand time. The rip-off of Schindler's List with the little boy was kind of cliche. The gameplay hadn't moved past walk down this hall, kneel behind a 3 foot walls, shoot everything in sight, repeat.

Shepard is kind of a douche too. His 'tude really gets on my nerves. What happened to noble heroes? Game characters always have to act like they have a pole up their butt.

Mass Effect is a hard game to have a demo for since it is difficult to pack a RPG experience in a short demo. I'll probably still buy it, but I am sure that it is going to get a lot more praise than it deserves.

I downloaded the demo yesterday just to see if ME3 would work on my laptop (it does, yay!). I'm not sure if I actually want to play it though or just wait until the full game comes out. I've never been a big fan of the Mass Effect series when it comes to gameplay, but I have enjoyed the story and especially the characters so I'm definitely looking forward to the conclusion.

Haven't played the demo yet, but from what I'm hearing I am a bit worried.

I may wait on this one before picking it up. There's just too many good games that I still need to play.

I'm pretty much going to wait on picking it up as well. I still haven't played ME2, which has been sitting on my shelf for a good 6 months. I may even sell the 360 version and buy the PS3 game, since it has all of the downloadable content.

Circle, I know that games are a lot more expensive in other countries. Do you at least get good promotions like the ones listed above?

Not for ME3 as far as I'm aware of, but I'm generally pretty ignorant of these things.

Just had a shot at the demo. It was pretty boring. I didn't even finish it and have no urge to return. But I am aware of how hard it is to sample out a game like ME3 so my enthusiasm hasn't dampened ... much.

I got very little from it. The whole thing was a bit beige. I don't feel like I'm being sold anything over what was in the last 2 games, aside from the multiplayer (which is not a huge selling point for me). Weapons sound-effects were cool, though. All in all, so long as planet scanning and anything that resembles it has been scrapped, I'll be happy. Oh, ME2, why must you bore me so? The Mako wasn't that bad.

I am playing Mass Effect 3 since Saturday and so far I think it's excellent! You mileage might vary and I could see how newcomers to the series could be overwhelmed at first by all the new faces and places to discover. But if you start playing a trilogy of games with the 3rd game of the series it's clearly your own fault. Get back to Mass Effect 1 or at least 2 and get kicking Reapers in their robotic shins!

What I really like is how things I've done (or not done) reflect in the Mass Effect universe of part 3. This was one of my main complaints in part 2 and I think they pretty much nailed it this time. I saw plenty of familiar faces and some familiar places (Citadel is of course a constant in the galaxy saving business). Considering how many squadmates could have died at the end of ME2, I wonder how the story would have played out so far if I wouldn't have been able to keep everyone alive.

There are also more choices that are difficult than in Mass Effect 1 or 2. While there were only one or two occasions where I was pondering about the best course of action in previous games, I found myself hesitating more often this time. As morally questionable renegade Troy Shepard I'm still shooting people in the face occasionally, or punch them for pissing me off. The whole reputation system with paragon and renegade got an overhaul for the better. Paragon and renegade choices add up to a common reputation-bar instead of being to separate entities. Currently I'm about half Jack Bauer and half boyscout, with slight leaning to the boyscout due to some recent decisions. It's good to live in the grey area and not being punished for not being 100% saint or 100% asshole.

Some thoughts of mine about Mass Effect 3 (including ending) I will put a spoiler warning and try to keep it clean until then

First I should state my view on ME1 and ME2, so that it's clear where I'm coming from. I really liked the first Mass Effect, but.
- but ME had a lot of classic RPG tropes which were in my view not necessary - why can't my squaddies not dress themselves and why do I have to deal with credits as "Spectre" superhero with quasi-unlimited authority?
- but the GUI was horrible, seriously: who designed this?
- but some of the systems felt a bit out of place in science fiction
- but only 2 more people in the squad was a bit strange considering you're hiring a sizable space crew
- but the Mako sections were boring
etc.

However, the ending was one of the strongest in any game I played to date and made up for most of the but's. Mass Effect 2 I thoroughly enjoyed. I liked the bold take on space RPG by blurring genre lines until they became useless to describe ME2. Is ME2 a shooter or an rpg? Does it matter? If nothing else ME2 again showed that the genre descriptions we use are in dire need of a serious review. My only complaint is that the end was a bit unsatisfactory. The reapers are coming but I haven't actually done anything during the game to stop them. And now we're at ME3.

The first game was a wondrous journey through space with blue skinned lesbian aliens and a sense of discovery. The second revisited the already know universe and told a series of personal stories, but suffered by being a clear 'middle part' of a proposed trilogy. It was a game about collecting resources. Resources in form of funky sounding elements as well as people that would help in the upcoming fight.

Mass Effect 3 has a very different tone. We are at war and it shows on the Normandy, which feels more like a submarine than anything else thanks to the dim red lighting. People die. It's less about personal stories, it's about fleets and war assets. It's about scientists and soldiers. I met old friends and enemies. But they would not sit and wait forever until I arrive. People would move on and Shepard isn't the only person to start a romance anymore. Old comrades get different offers, the Normandy isn't the sole center of the universe.

I like and dislike the ending at the same time. At first I was confused, then I started to think about it, connected the dots and came to a very different conclusion. Bioware obviously hasn't replied to it yet, they claim they will do so after more people have a chance to see the ending. If the ending is what I think it is, it's actually quite clever. What I miss from the ending is only one thing: closure.

you enter spoiler territory - please turn around now if you didn't finish Mass Effect 3

Still here?
Ok, then let's talk about the end. The game ends on earth (not surprising, given the premise) where Shepard lands with all the fleets she could muster. It is rather bleak and the final push towards a magic elevator to the citadel is interrupted by nothing less than the biggest reaper out there. Shepard awakes, presumbably, and jumps into the citadel where he encounters Anderson and the illusive Man (TIM). This is where I started to wonder what's going on and the whole setup boils down to destroying the reapers or controlling the reapers. In my case Anderson and TIM died and I went up the citadel, talking to a ghost kid that presented the choices I have. At this point I was sure this is a dream sequence. The spooky ghost kid tried to talk me into controlling the reapers (yeah, because that surely works...), giving myself up to combine synthetics and organic people or the evil renegade option of killing all synthetic life in the galaxy. Whatever I choose, the mass relays will be destroyed. I will cite admiral Ackbar: it's a trap! I went for the presumably renegade option of destroying the reapers. Now the weirdness doesn't stop, by showing a scene where Joker flies away from an exploding mass relay, crashlanding on some far away planet. Then Garrus jumps out of the crash-landed Normandy as well. This is obviously wrong, since he was just in London with me, getting hit by a reaper. Poor Garrus is probably toast. Then the game ended with a scene of rubble and Shepard breathing in. Now: the rubble didn't look like the citadel, but London just when the reaper hit. Thus I conclude Shepard is still in London and the reaper invasion is not over yet, but nice try. This ending made me think quite a bit and this makes sense, considering Shepards nightmares, him seeing a boy no one else could see (which looks very similar to the ghost boy he meets on the citadel), suddenly not being able to use any powers for the whole citadel part (why did I forget how to use disruptor ammo?) and the information we have about reaper indoctrination. What I still miss is closure, since I concluded it's not over. I assume some dlc will come with the actual "end". Hopefully this will also explain what happened to the universe and to all the friends and enemies I made along the trip. As it is, the Mass Effect saga doesn't feel like it's 'over'. The final hint: once I was done watching the credits, a window popped up telling me I can play some dlc soon. Yeah, EA is not done milking this franchise.

I imported the savegame of my Shepard from Mass Effect 1 and 2. Then it doesn't even ask and automatically selects role-playing mode. The other modes are only possible for new games and in case of action mode the character generation is circumvented and the game is started straight away with the soldier class. Dialogue choices are automatically on the renegade side of the spectrum as far as I can tell, but I didn't play action mode far. There are some paragon choices as well, overall I'd say 55/45 renegade/paragon in my case. Didn't try story mode.

However, I noticed that even starting a new character with ME3 in role-playing mode is different than with an imported save. With my Shepard carried over from previous games I had more dialogue options, whereas my 'new' character would automatically select some options according to what the game determines has happened the first two games. It seems to be either randomly determined or by filling out the 'psychological profile'. For example: in a new game with an infiltrator I started Wrex was dead. In a new game of friend of mine, also as an infiltrator, Wrex was still alive. I guess the reason for this is twofold, to make replaying more interesting and to prevent a canon storyline.

About the RPG mechanics: I think ME3 is the best of the series. It has still less skills than ME1 but they are better. Let me explain what I mean: in ME1 there were plenty of skills according to class with lots of points, but they were just linear. Raising the level of pistols would unlock new skills at set points and my choice boiled down to get Assault Rifle to maximum as soon as possible and then put leftover points in more hitpoints and intimidation. The other weapons I never really used and there was no incentive to do so. Finding a cool sniper rifle with my soldier was pretty useless, since I had invested so much in my assault rifle skill.

In ME3 there are no weapon skills, which was already the case in ME2. Unlike ME2, it's possible to use any weapon regardless of class. However: depending on the weight of the weapons power recarge speed changes. Less and light weapons mean power use more often. There is no clear 'best' weapon, any weapon in the game has it's use for some build and some situation. Different assault rifles have different modes of fire (single, burst, full auto) and some weapons have specialties (exploding bullets, see through fog and cover). The skills for each class branch out after the first 3 levels. More weapon damage or more shields? More granade damage or larger radius of the explosion? Extra damage against stunned targets or 25% faster recharge? This makes it possible to specialize and pick skills according to party synergies.